The Effects of Self-Regulated Training on the Academic Achievement and Behavior of At-Risk High School Students

This dissertation investigated the effects of self-regulated training on the academic achievement and behavior of at risk students. The results of this study suggest that it is possible to curtail maladaptive behavior patterns early if we help students overcome their frustrations and failure within the school setting. The findings of this study support other research suggesting that it is imperative to obtain self-regulatory skills in order for the adolescent to have developmental achievement. By obtaining self-regulatory skills, these adolescents will most often successfully exhibit the ability to successfully self-regulate their own behaviors, allowing them to control their actions, complete tasks and ultimately achieve goals in school and life in general. The data from this research indicates that the Learn to Learn Program improved student academic performance and decreased student discipline referrals. This suggests that the Learn to Learn Program most likely had a positive effect on student motivation and internal locus of control, ultimately increasing the student’s overall control of frustration and improvement in self-esteem. This research provides implications for educational leaders to develop ways of incorporating self regulated training in order of reducing dropout rates, decreasing violence in schools and improving academic performance, providing a basis for further research to address ways of meeting the needs of each student, academically, behaviorally and emotionally in an attempt to decrease recidivism and ultimately produce successful members of society. The data in this study suggest that a self-regulatory program like the Learn to Learn Program can benefit students with academic deficits as well as those with behavior problems. As a self-regulated training program that has previously been implemented in numerous traditional school settings, this study illustrated the effectiveness of the Learn to Learn program with at-risk high school students attending an alternative education school due to extreme academic deficiencies and/or extreme maladaptive and aggressive behaviors.